The 43 English and Welsh forces have seen Police officer numbers go down by 4,001 or 2.9 per cent compared with September 2011 and have decreased by 2,262 or 1.7 per cent compared with March 2012. This is the lowest number of police officers recorded since 2002. There were falls in the number of officers for 32 of the 43 English and Welsh forces since March 2012 and falls in the number of officers for 42 of the 43 English and Welsh forces since September 2011.
There were 132,235 Police Officers (full-time equivalents) in England and Wales on 30 September 2012. This total includes 131,837 Police Officers in the 43 police forces of England and Wales and 398 officers seconded to central services. Another 2,650 officers represent the British Transport Police across England and Wales.
Also, there were 19,159 special constables (see note 7) in the 43 forces of England and Wales, a decrease of 1.3 per cent (248) since September 2011, and a decrease of 5.9 per cent (1,193) since March 2012.
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Steve Williams, Chairman, Police Federation of England and Wales, says: “British police officers are regarded as the finest in the world. The latest force strength figures highlight that not only does Britain have the lowest number of police officers in over a decade, but that while this number has been reducing, the population has been increasing – making the gap in policing per population head even wider.
“We accept that huge advances in technology over this same decade have meant that many functions have been streamlined in terms of operational delivery and that we must always look at how we can do more for less. However, these same advances have brought about whole new crime types such as cyber-crime. Hence, the stretch on police capacity has not reduced, merely changed in profile.
“The government must question whether a reduced police service that operates only on a cost basis is what the public expects. Effective policing encompasses much more than solving crime – areas such as road traffic accidents, mental health incidents, missing persons, intelligence gathering and simply providing visible safety and reassurance to the local community are equally important and officer dependent.“
And for the Association of Chief Police Officers, ACPO lead on workforce development Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said: “With 80 per cent of police budgets used on human resources and substantial cuts to policing budgets, it is not surprising that numbers of officers and staff have reduced. The service has risen to the challenge of dealing with significant financial cuts and reform. Chief officers have delivered the budget reductions asked of them while maintaining the protection of the public, demonstrating techniques of business transformation and change management which show the service is not short of talented and skilled officers and staff.
“Workforce morale is key during this period of change and ensuring our staff are rewarded and properly trained to do the job at hand is integral. Dealing with ambitious staff frustrated by the lack of promotion opportunities and ensuring the service continues to develop and nurture the brightest and the best that are truly representative of the communities we serve is one of the biggest challenges that we face.”
